Longtail Kitchen has landed at the food courts of New Westminster’s River Market — taking over the space once occupied by the short-lived Fathom. Maenam’s Angus An brings a slightly more casual take on Thai cuisine to the Royal City.

Inside Longtail, the minimal decor is anchored by a wall of Southeast Asian trinkets to one side, a glass fridge covered by discarded Asian newspapers and lit by spherical paper lanterns.

The menu is quite small, no more than a dozen items, with some familiar items to Maenam regulars. The Pad Thai is artfully executed: rustic fried rice noodles tossed with oversized prawns, tofu and sprouts in tangy tamarind sauce.

Finally, Longtail takes a half Cornish game hen, dusts it with rice flour and grills it over open flames giving the chicken a crispy, yet beautifully smoky flavor.

Grilled Cornish Game Hen ($12). Half a chicken dusted in toasted rice powder, grilled on an open flame and served with Nam Jim sauce.

Dishes at Longtail will run you anywhere between $6 and $12 dollars. You won’t find too many Thai joints doing it like this in New West, or even Metro Vancouver for that matter. Simple, tasty and reasonably priced.